Falconry Regulations

Falconry in Colorado is regulated by Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW), with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service providing law enforcement and federal regulatory oversight. Current information and application forms can be found on the CPW website. The CPW licensing process is provided here as a roadmap for those interested in beginning the licensing process, followed by the CPW chapters that directly related to falconry.

Please contact Erik Slater, Special Licensing Coordinator, at Wildlife.SpecialLicensing@state.co.us or at 303.291.7143 if you have additional questions regarding apprentice licensing or specific inquiries regarding license renewal, reinstatement or transfer from another state.

**Note: although the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is no longer involved in falconry licensing, CPW regulations do require the submission of the federal Migratory Bird Acquisition and Disposition Report, also known as the “3-186a form”. This form was previously submitted online to USFWS, however the website has not been functioning since approximately the summer of 2016. The current procedure is to complete the 3-186a either by hand after printing it out, or via Adobe Acrobat with fields that can be typed in, (you must still sign the original in blue ink) and then U.S. mail this form to CPW/Special Licensing, 6060 Broadway, Denver, CO 80216.